Avenger Assembled

Their pilot stayed with the plane, explaining with a little shrug that she couldn't leave it abandoned. "And besides, you might need a ride home in a hurry," she added with a smile. That left the heroes to exit together out onto the airstrip, which wasn't the worst thing the two of them had sever seen but certainly wasn't pretty. The volcanic ashfall across much of the island recently had been relatively light here and had long since washed off the tropical forest and the like, but the airport building itself looked to be largely abandoned. There were a few vehicles parked if they wanted to try their hands at hotwiring them, or they had their powers to get them where they needed to go. 

 

It was easy to think, at least for a moment, they were all alone on the island despite their pilot, even though of course they knew the island was only partially evacuated. Still, the nearest village was some distance away from the map they'd consulted. Heading towards the capital would give them access to more people but take them off the immediate trail, heading for the Cardenas company site would give them access to where Cardenas had been last seen - but also get them closer to the volcano! Soufrière Hills wasn't actually erupting at the moment - but the pillar of smoke rising from it in the distance was a reminder that it lived still.

Hey, you're the boss, anything from full immunity to "quitcher bellyaching and roll" would be acceptable. =D 

 

https://orokos.com/roll/993566 well that was a bad roll. 

 

Okay, I'll just take the slowed and be chastened! 

 

 

 

"Thanks, Carmen." The last time they'd gotten together, Carmen had ridden around on the back of the Patriot's motorcycle - but not even a superhero could ride around with a newborn on a motorcycle. So instead they cheated a little. "Here, take this, and I'll tag the missus - " She handed Carmen a small metal tag about the size of a cellphone, then took another herself. "Okay, honey we're ready - hold on baby, it's coming!" 

Then there was a distinct flash of light, and the three of them were elsewhere, standing in an alleyway in what Ashley quickly explained was a nearby part of Freedom City. It was a slightly jarring transition as they landed a few inches above the ground, one which promptly started Phillip to crying again. "Fa'Rua's trying to get the teleporter on her ship to work better in atmosphere, but it's still a little rough. Ssh, ssh, it's okay, baby, it's okay..." She turned to Carmen and said, "Listen, this is a good place - but I can't put on my costume when I have the baby. Are you gonna be all right?" There was, after all, no way for Carmen to take her costume off. "We can go to my house if you'd rather." 

does Aquaria's nature as a proud Deep One rather than puny Surface-Man help her out here any? It's a five point feature! =D 

Neko stared at Carmen, her eyes going wide. She backed up, turning her body sideways, tail going up. Suddenly she ran to the rear of the corridor, feet pounding past the other two girls, and leaped up into the open window at the end of the hall. Crouching in the sill, she chittered loudly before diving out the window. 

 

Outside, she landed on her feet as she always did and ran over to the nearby tree. With an air of dainty elegance, she sat down beneath the branches and started licking the back of her hand before running it against her poofy white hair. Ugh. I think I blew it again! she thought disconsolantly. 

 

Quickly, she popped out her phone and began livestreaming. People following Catgirl Reacts got a popup message that quickly turned into Neko, sitting underneath a tree and looking downcast. "Hello, friends. It's my first day of senior year and I am sad." She gave the screen her saddest face, ears flattened on her head, and said "Does anyone have any ideas for how to cheer up...?" 

Oh no, the island is just as devastated as it is in our history. 

 

You find evidence that Cardenas has made several visits to the island. One of his energy companies, GeoCard, is trying to build a geothermal tap of the volcano - a project that had a great deal of publicity when it started a few years ago (the usual Internet buzz, appearance in sci-fi and science magazines, etc) but has had no reports of success -or of anything else - for some time. Montserrat is generally too small, too out of the way, and too poor to be of much interest to superheroes. Various Caribbean heroes have shown up to help during volcanic eruptions but for the most part, it's an area of the world with little metahuman activity. 

 

@Supercape, I am glad you asked that question - because here's what Echohead perceives...in a dream! 

 

<spoiler>

 

You are a lone fly, buzzing along, envious of the beautiful butterflies. A smiling friend offers to bind you in a cocoon so you can transform just like the beautiful ones. As the binding wraps tight around you, you realize too late that your smiling friend was a spider - and you have let yourself be bound in its web. You look in a mirror and see - the face of Cardenas himself! And then you awaken. 

 

</spoiler> 

 

 

"He is good," offered Neko, quite an admission for a girl who could walk up an exterior drain pipe if she was so inclined - something both of them had seen at one time or another. Neko liked watching cricket, sitting perfectly still for hours with her yellow eyes wide, but preferred solo sports like gymnastics for her own entertainment. 

 

As Erik had warned her was a distinct possibility, there was no place to park the car close by, but none of them were particularly worried about walking a block in the evening in the West End. The buildings here were almost comforting now, so much less alien than the towering skyscrapers of downtown. She was too nervous to let Leon put his arm around her as they walked, so she slipped her hand in his, her fingers their usual warmth. 

"Erik has some very athletic boys in his classes," she said impishly. "Maybe you could come by and show him your moves." It was the tone of voice she used when she was trying to tease him into doing something very unwise. 

The flight out to the island was long, given the time it took for Echohead to conscript an AEGIS plane and the two of them to head out over open waters. (Eira opted to stay at home; she had repairs to conduct on herself, and wanted to continue dissecting the drone for more clues.) Their pilot, Carmen, was an older Latino woman in an AEGIS uniform, a friendly, professional face who let the experts to their own work as she flew the plane. It had been a while since anyone had visited Montserrat, according to the agent; a recent round of volcanic eruptions had led to another partial evacuation of the much-beleagured island. 

The heroes had time to make their plans, using a recent satellite map of the island. But where would they go?

"The Lor do it all the time," said Ashley easily, watching relieved as her son settled into her sidekick's arms. "Gay and lesbian couples, interspecies couples, couples where nobody wants to get pregnant...they even do it when they have a population crisis." Her eyes shadowed for a moment before she went on, "Fa'Rua doesn't believe in getting pregnant and I can't get pregnant and be the Patriot, so we found a way to have a family of our own." She smiled at that, then admitted, "I don't want to tell people that. You know, that the Patriot just...took the easy way out, when there are so many people on Earth who can't have kids. I only did this because there was no other way." 

"Hm." Neko bumped heads with Leon, smiling. Youth indeed. Leon was bigger than her, and stronger, and had graduated from Claremont before she had. But she was six times his age or more; older even than the oldest elders he knew. That was mostly an interesting fact to consider, when she wasn't thinking about all the ways she did indeed feel old. In the back, once she was sitting next to Leon again, she gave Erik a hopeful smile. "He has his own money," she added, "and works...honestly." 

If the baby had been unsettled for his mother, he seemed very interested in Carmen, staring up at her with big baby blue eyes. "Oh thank God," Ashley muttered audibly. Should we buy more cat stuff? Getting tired of the spaceman theme in his bedroom. "He's so good for Fa'Rua but he's still a little pistol for maman. Do you want to hold him?" she asked. She wouldn't hand her adopted son off to just anybody, but she knew she could trust Carmen. "He's just with her most of the time," she added, "so they're just bosom buddies." She smiled a little tightly. "He's actually, ah, the clone of her brother, which is where he got the ears. Good thing he's so cute," she added. 

Sea Devil squatted down by the dead dog, resting her trident on the ground next to her with a thump. There was so much she could have said. In her time she had killed and eaten dogs, feral, furred creatures that ventured too close to the water and found that there were things with far more teeth than them out there. That was before she had come to the Surface, and before she and Jessie had adopted Baxter. They'd had him for more than ten years now, a long time in the life of a dog. He didn't run and play as much as he once did, but he was probably asleep at Jessie's feet right now, giving her the emotional and physical comfort that nothing else could. In a few years he would be dead too, just like this dog. Just like almost everyone else. "Good boy," she croaked softly, tracing her armored three-fingered hand over the dog's fur. 

 

When she rose to her feet, she struck her trident against her armored chest once, twice, three times. "Are you here?" she bellowed suddenly. "Are you here? Come! Come and see!" If it was here, anywhere in the Park, she knew the thing would hear her. 

I haven't spent any HP so far, so I'll spend an HP to pass the Notice check. 

 

https://orokos.com/roll/992472 = 6 

 

The survival I definitely failed, so I'll stick with that one! Can't win em all =D 

 

Like with Diamondlight, Sea Devil has enough super-senses that she's very hard to sneak up on.

I have decided on my own initiative to let everyone keep the points accidentally awarded them by the initial botched count. If you don't like that, take it up with management. =D 

 

April: Ardent = 1PP 

 

Doctor Archeville 

Artificer = 1pp

Horrorshow  1 post = 1pp

 

 

EternalPhoenix: Terrifica =1PP 

 

Fox: Eclipse = 1PP 

 

Gizmo: Chitin = 1PP 

 

KnightDisciple: Patrioteen = 1PP

 

Nerdzul

Nightscale: 17=2PP

 

Spacefurry

Paper - 5=1PP

Blackstaff - 2 (+10GM = 12)=2PP

Chimera - 4=1PP

Predator - 6=1PP

 

 

Supercape

Rev (Titanium), 2PP+6 posts to Haven

Vignette (1.3K Words) -> Roll to Haven

ACAV 6 Posts -> Roll to Haven

 

Peak: 1 post, 1PP

 

Diamondlight, = 7+8=15=2PP [Titanium]

Let the bodies hit the ground 7 Posts

 

Captain Cosmos, 1+24 =25 posts = 3PP+2PP=5PP

Vignette (1.2K words)

Graveyard of the pacific 1 Post

 

Starshot (Titanium), 2PP to Haven

Vignette (1.3K Words) -> Roll to Haven, 2PP 

 

Haven, 6+19=25=3PP+2PP+2PP+2PP+1PP+1PP+2PP+2PP=15PP 

Vignette (1.2K words)

HellQ

Origin Vignette (1.3K words)

Reputation Table

20Q - The Interview

 

Sgt Shark, +1 post = 2PP 

Vignette (Joint with Avenger)

 

Snakebite, +1 post+2PP=3PP 

VIgnette (1.2K words)

 

Echohead, 6 posts =1PP

Teching the tech 6 Posts

 

 Gamma Buzz 4 posts =1PP 

Half Life 4 Posts

GM

Golden Dead 6 Posts

Beyond the Pale 7 Posts

Double the Treble 7 Posts

Golden Gloves 7 Posts

Total GM Posts = 27. Times 2 = 54 posts

 

Tiff = Zhenschina-voin = 1PP 

 

TheAbsurdist: Jotunn = 1PP 

 

Thevshi

Timeout 5+1Mod =2PP

Multi-Girl = 1PP 

Veronica Danger (Titanium) 1

 

Trollthumper: Cavalier = 1PP 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, this is a little late! 

 

Give me an attack roll (the Drive check is more than enough to get there without penalty) 

 

What are you trying to do with the ghost car? 

Sea Devil considered her options quickly - and soon began hopping after Diamondlight. Her instinct was always to stay with the group, which made following someone else easy enough. And truth be told, while Diamondlight seemed a pleasant enough Surfacer, she had little doubt that he was far less ferocious than either herself or her dragon friend, and probably far more vulnerable to his flesh being rent, blood being drunk, and otherwise becoming the prey of whatever formidable beast was hereabouts. I don't want the hunter to gobble him up; that would be terrible! So instead she followed the other hero, senses keen for any sign of their prey, nostrils audibly snuffling after any scent of blood as they went. "Don't worry," she added in a low rumble for Diamondlight's benefit, "we will protect you from the bad murderer!" 

Neko gave Leon an encouraging toothed smile, even as part of her wanted to explain the narrative. Erik was generally clever enough to spot when even she lied to his face, but of course she'd learned from girlhood how to tell a story that was your truth, if not the truth of every man and goblin that listened to you speak. Everything will be fine. He will seem like a promising young man to Erik, the date will go well, and then we can begin what we need to do for the rest of our lives. She looked out the window and thought of the stories she'd told Erik about Leon, about how he was a boy who had been a criminal when he was younger but was on the straight-and-narrow now. All true stories, for what that was worth, even if she'd kept many of those truths to herself. All very small things. When you know what I know. 

Eira said something that would have made a Viking blush and spat more blue fluid onto the back of her sleeve. "Bitchbastard jaw feedback!" The dark blue magnetic fluid soaked rapidly into her white sleeve as the drone continued repeating the last few phrases she'd pulled from its memory banks. Still crouching over the drone, she looked up at Predator and Mirror Knight. "This could have passed for some time. They inserted a large language model into its brain and taught it to tell people about uploading, the skit röv mamma jävlars," she added furiously, She couldn't seem to pull her hands free without breaking the connection, so she wiped her mouth on the sleeve again. "Its internal memory starts in the Caribbean - in Montserrat." 

 

- 

 

The redhead was looking around at the sky, as if taking in what would be her last glimpse of free air for a little while. Come to think of it, if she hadn't killed anything sentient, what was her sentence going to be? Probably not very long. "I'm telling you," she added, "It's those robotic creeps in Ukraine, oh, excuse me," she added sarcastically, "in _Rurland_, who are doing all this. Just watch if you go there; you wouldn't be the first superheroes they replaced," she added seriously. "You're all right. The world needs supers with a little common sense."

Well. This is it, decided Neko. Years of rivalry, of hissing at each other in the corridors - soon they were going to be free from the places that Americans in the 21st century kept their teenagers and choosing their own destiny. How long can we keep this up? They were practically women now, depending on exactly how you defined that, and they couldn't keep up such kittenish behavior towards one another foreveer. 

 

Considering, she gave Starshine a wave and took two of her cookies, then turned and padded towards Carmen, making direct, solid eyecontact with the other catgirl as she left Bernadette and the others behind. Her tail twitched behind her as she went, her ears flattening against the top of her head, her yellow eyes wide and staring as she padded right up to Carmen - and handed her one of the cookies. 

Owain sat in the boys common room and studied himself in his pocket mirror for just a moment. He looked a veritable fellow of the modern age; his bowl cut grown out into luxurious dark locks, his green muscle shirt showing off how much the nutrition and exercise of this enlightened future had done for him; the pride flag on his backpack perhaps indicating that - well, he'd cross THAT bridge when he came to it. As it was - well, he had one great challenge first.  

 

He reached into his case, pulled out his lute, strummed it a few times - and began to play: 

 

"Sumer is icumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ þe wde nu
Sing cuccu!"

"Professionals should always believe in what they do. It's how you know they won't sell you out the first time somebody pays them more." She shrugged. "Anyway, if you want to find out who replaced Cardenas, my advice is to check with the robots. They're the ones with the hidden agenda here, not me." She smiled thinly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Except not getting beaten again by those thick-necked goons. If you could drop me off with the actual pigs and not these rent-a-pigs, we're square for all this." 

 

Eira made a noise that sounded like a very human grunt of frustration, pivoting her body as if she was driving her dataspikes as deep into the brain as possible. "Somewhere in Caribbean...will need to process the data." She knelt down until one knee was resting directly on the broken drone's chest, leaning down with her body weight as fluid trickled from Cardenas's mouth. "Extensive memory-mapping. Could have passed for human for long enough." She looked up at Predator and said, "Cardenas is dead. This level of memory-mapping requires individual sectioning of brain tissue. It is almost impossible to 'upload' a mature human mind." 

 

The drone spoke, Eira's lips moving at the same time. "Spread gospel. Cyberization. Implants. Encourage - uplifted -" The drone was making mechanical noises that were not quite speech; and now something was leaking from Eira's mouth, a distinct dark blue fluid a different color than what was leaking from the broken drone.

"There is nothing here to talk to," said Eira dismissively, her dataspikes making audible wet noises as they penetrated into the cyberbrain. "This is just a drone pretending to be human." A mechanical tone like "awwww" escaped the Cardenas thing's lips as the dataspikes bit deeper. "I am compiling its travel patterns onto a datamap..." She grunted with audible effort as the drone twitched, taking a step to keep stradding it as if she was pinning it down by brute force. "If you have questions, ask me-" 

 

-

 

The redhead looked a little surprised - even if she did rub her wrists and mutter "Took you long enough." It was hard to tell how much Echohead had actually reached her; but it seemed like he'd actually caught her attention. "You know about that robot nation in Europe, right?" she asked skeptically. "The one they made where Chernobyl used to be? That's where they're doing it. Not like a big bad bot army or something...but you know, all that transhumanist malarkey. They make it look like what they have is better than what we have. What we could ever hope to be. But ask Cardenas how well that went." 

The being behind the wheel turned and looked at Rev and smiled. Or rather, continued to smile. She couldn't make out much in the dark but she could see a white face, huge black eyes, and a wide, fixed, skeletal grin. The inside of the car was glowing with an eerie fey light, The police officer - for it was, or perhaps had once been a police officer, pointed to the speeding vampire ahead of them, then back at Rev, then back at the speeding vampire. At this point, leaning out the window on the other side, Pete licked off a shot at the vampire ahead, blasting a visible hole in the speeding truck's backside. 

"We're gonna run out of room soon!" Sure enough, Pete was right; speeding north they were going to reach the end of the long peninsula on which Bedlam sat in the space of just a few minutes, meaning they had to make some fast decisions before they hit Lake Michigan at a speed that would do very little for the Dune Buggy's outside - or Rev's inside! 

Pete peered out the rolled-down side window, his brow furrowing as the chill night air of Bedlam whipped into the speeding car. He was holding the gun, an automatic pistol that had swelled into a real hand-cannon. "Baby I wouldn't shoot at the cops for just anybody! I-huh. Look at-wait, no, don't look at that!" He'd been about to tell her something about the rapidly approaching police car. "Something doesn't look right; that's-" 

The police car pulled up alongside Rev and the Dune Buggy, a shocking burst of speed that was clearly blatantly impossible for a normal car, much less whatever Bedlam cops provided. Looking out the window, Rev could catch a glimpse of an old-fashioned black and white police cruiser, the kind of car that even in a city like Bedlam had been retired years earlier. The road was narrow enough to have two lanes but the police cruiser was riding on the shoulder, its lights a lurid shade of blue and tires glowing with eldritch fire. 

Ahead of them, the vampire lord in the truck was technically at either of their mercies - whoever the other driver was. "Do you want me shooting?" asked Pete, looking like he was steeling himself either way.